


Days Like This

by truthrowan



Category: Roswell (TV 1999)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-09-01
Updated: 2019-09-01
Packaged: 2020-10-04 19:43:20
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Underage
Chapters: 5
Words: 4,267
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20476481
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/truthrowan/pseuds/truthrowan
Summary: AU from 22 minutes 46 seconds into Departure (S2 Ep 21). What if Liz had turned around before going into the Crashdown? What if the kiss in the Jeep hadn’t been their goodbye? What if things still went terribly wrong?





	1. On the scale of bad days

It was vying to be the third worst day of Liz Parkers life. Maybe even second, if it kept going down hill. For a while she’d thought the worst day would always be the day her Grandma Claudia died, then the day Max was taken to the White Room, or the day they heard the message from the Orb. When Alex was murdered she imagined nothing would ever take that unenviable spot. Shortly after though it had been superseded, and somehow her priorities and what constituted “a worst day” changed. The day a little over a month ago when Max had left, the moment Tess had grabbed him and he had been dragged into the Granolith with her, watching as Tess abducted him away with her into exile in the moment her betrayal was discovered, had seemed like the absolute culmination of devastation.   
  
She had him, she was going to have him again, they knew the truth and there was no way he was leaving, no way he was going with Tess. But in a sudden jerking motion and a flash of light, Tess had dragged him with her inside the Granolith, and the cavern began to come apart around them. Defeat snatched from the very jaws of victory. She’d have stayed, even then, if he hadn't yelled at her to run, if the others hadn’t dragged her out of the cave. Standing at the foot of the stone, sobbing in the arms of Maria, Michael, Isabel and Kyle, as the ship shot into the sky, she knew it was the worst day of her life. So far it seemed nothing would ever top it. But today was trying to come close.

“Get out.” Her father told her, a coldness in his voice she’d never experienced before. She knew he’d be angry but, not like this. She searched his face, but it was closed, with an anger she’d never seen before.

“Daddy I, I’m sorry. Mom, you know I never-” Her mother just shook her head, hand over her mouth and turned away from her.

“Get out. Now. Pack your things, and leave.” She couldn’t process what she was hearing.

“But Daddy, I-” Her eyes filled with tears, her throat burned. She knew she messed up, but they were her parents, how could they do this? How could they turn her out?

“You made your bed Elizabeth, and now you have to lie in it. We put up with the sneaking around, the staying out late, the lying, everything. We tried to straighten you out. But now you’ve gone and done this, and we can’t stand by while you throw your whole life away. If you keep on this path Liz, you can’t do it here. We won’t help you destroy everything you were supposed to be.”

“I’m supposed to be your daughter! You’re supposed to love me, no matter what, even when I mess up!” Her voice was as raw as the tears streaming down her face.

“You have to choose Lizzie.” Her mother said, turning back to her, tears streaming down her own face. “If you want to stay, you know what you have to do. Otherwise you have to leave. It’s the only way.” She couldn’t understand how her mother, her mother who swore she was her only miracle, the much planned for and loved only child of a couple who’d found each other and parenthood far later than was common in their little rural community, could do this to her.

She looked at them, and they seemed like strangers. She couldn’t even recognize the people who raised her anymore “I’ll pack a couple of bags tonight, and be back for everything else in a couple of days.” She said, voice hoarse, before turning and walking to her room.


	2. Valenti's Home for Wayward Girls

The universe had some sort of twisted humor, Liz thought an hour later, as she rode away from the only home she’d ever known in the passenger seat of Kyle’s Mustang. Neither Maria or Michael had answered their phones, the Evans line stayed busy, probably as Mr. and Mrs. Evans frantically called and searched around for the son they could not find, keeping Isabel on virtual lock down unless she disappear too, and Liz had lost any other friends she had long ago. Which meant here she was, another pregnant girl on her way to the former Sheriffs house. As they pulled into the driveway and stopped Kyle turned to her, and as if he’d sensed her thoughts he said, “Welcome to Valenti’s Home for Wayward Girls”. She half laughed, half snorted, the snot from all her recent tears choking in the back of her throat as the tears threatened to start spilling again. Kindly, Kyle turned to her and placed a hand on her shoulder. “Hey, hey. I promise it’s gonna be okay.” She smiled weakly back at him. 

“Thanks Kyle”

“Come on, let’s get your stuff in the house, then we’ll track down the others and figure out where to go from there.”

She hadn’t planned to tell Kyle first, hadn’t planned to tell anyone yet, she just needed to get out of the house with its oppressive atmosphere, had to get out since her parents made it clear she was no longer welcome in the only home she’d ever known. But her father's snarl of “Is it his?” when Kyle had knocked at the door had done the job for her. “No.” She told him, frowning an apology at Kyle and trying to take in his stunned look as he helped her carry her bags down stairs and load them into the car. "It's not his." 

They’d only been in the house a few minutes when the stress of the day caught up to her and sent Liz running towards the bathroom, choking on a breakfast she hadn’t even eaten. She didn’t hear the door open or Sheriff Valenti come in, didn’t even realize he was there until she was raising a palm full of water to her mouth and their eyes met in the bathroom mirror, brown on blue. She saw the sadness there, and the trace of anger, as she finished rinsing her mouth out. 

When she walked out into the living room he was standing there, hat in his hands, and they just stared for a moment. She wondered if he was going to yell at her like her parents had, and stood, already half flinched, before she saw his shoulders droop and found herself wrapped in a hug. “Didn’t his damn father ever tell him to wrap it up?” He gruffly joked, squeezing her with all the reassurance she wished her own father had, and she fought the urge to start crying all over again. 

“Didn’t work, and we should have had double coverage.” She quipped back with a broken laugh that battled not to become a sob, and he patted her back sadly before pulling back to look at her, then gesturing for her to take a seat. Kyle stood awkwardly to the side during the exchange, clutching the phone, before sitting gingerly on the far arm of the couch from Liz. “I finally got in touch with Michael and Maria, they’re going to go grab Isabel and then they’ll be here as soon as they can.” he told her, and she smiled and nodded her thanks, before turning back to his father.

“Sheriff, I want to thank you for letting me come here. I promise, as soon as we know what’s going on, and can make a plan, I’ll get out of your hair.” She told him, drawing a deep breath and trying to convey her gratitude and sincerity. 

“You think this is very different than what happened with, what happened with-” Kyle asked, unable to say her name. 

“I’m sure it is.” Liz said calmly. “Tess’ pregnancy progressed very rapidly, they estimated she’d deliver within just a month or so. I’m only 6 weeks, but it seems to be progressing along a more human rate, and everything seems okay. I’m hoping when Isabel and Michael get here maybe they’ll be able to sense things, be able to help me figure out more.” 

Jim looked at her, hesitancy in his face before he asked, “And you’re sure how far along you are, you know when you-” he let the question trail off, and a small, bitter grin twisted her lips. 

“I know exactly when this happened Sheriff.” She told him, her face coloring. “There was only the one and only time. The night before they left.” She grimaced at his look of surprise, and that on Kyle’s face as he moved off the arm of the couch to sit next to her, and felt the need to explain.

“I was about to lose him for forever, so I asked for just that, that one night." Her fingers twisted nervously in her lap, as her voice cracked. "One memory to hold on to. She might have gotten his first time, she was about to get him for forever, but I didn’t want her to steal mine. I still wanted him to be mine.” She closed her eyes and lost her battle against the tears again. “Guess I got more than I bargained for, huh?” She said self-deprecatingly, and laid her head against Kyle’s shoulder as he pulled her into a sideways hug.


	3. A Strange Family

The scene when the rest of the teens arrived was pure tension, as everyone filed in and found seats. “Okay Liz,” Michael said, hands folded before him as he slumped against the back of the recliner where Maria was perched. “Kyle told us that you called us to meeting, what’s the deal?” 

She looked around at her friends, seeing how worn and heart broken Michael and Isabel were, and almost chickened out, almost couldn’t bear to tell them, but the supportive looks from the Valenti men forced her to move forward. She took a deep breath and closed her eyes, clenching her hands until she could feel the crescent of her nails biting into her palms. 

“There isn’t any good way to say this. The night before Max and Tess, the night before they left,“ She paused to lick her lips, her mouth suddenly dry, and reached gratefully for the water Kyle passed to her. She had to get this out, before the looks of concern, of half terror on Isabel and Michael's faces broke them, broke her. “The night before they left Max and I made love. And now I’m pregnant, and my parents kicked me out.” 

The shock on Isabel’s face would have been comical if it hadn’t been so heartbreaking, while Michael’s emphatic, “Jesus Maxwell, didn’t you ever learn to wrap it up?” as he scrubbed his hands over his face surprised a chuckle out of both her and the Sheriff, drawing frowns from everyone else. 

“Honestly, the Sheriff said exactly the same thing, and he did.” She shook her head. “Neither of us were stupid, at least he wasn’t that time. We should have been safe, he took precautions and I’ve been on the pill since I was 15 for acne and cramps. I don’t know how this happened, statistically it shouldn’t have been possible.” She looked at the blonde hybrid standing across the room from her, her child's aunt. Would she want to be her child's aunt? “Isabel, I should be 6 weeks along, but from what we know Tess was going through a much more accelerated pregnancy than a human would, and we don’t know what to expect from these… circumstances. Can you, can you scan me or something and try to see if you can figure anything out? Everything seems normal so far, I’m assuming that maybe since I’m human the baby can survive on Earth, and that’s why I’m not having complications?” 

Liz watched as Isabel swallowed, tears in her eyes, before nodding and walking over. She crouched down beside the couch and brought her hand towards Liz abdomen before pausing and looking up into the brown haired girls face. “I’ll need to touch you, to get a better Connection.” She told her, and Liz nodded, pulling up her shirt and lowering the waistband of her pants a bit. Slowly, tentatively, Isabel placed her hand on Liz’s still smooth stomach, and sent her energy out, searching, into the smaller girl. She gasped, and her eyes flew open to meet Liz’s, tears brimming in both their eyes. 

“Oh my god Liz, this is Max’s baby.” her voice broke, “you’re having Max’s baby.” She sat there sobbing for her lost brother, and rested her head against the tiny brunettes chest as she wrapped her arms around her as they both cried for the man they loved and missed. It took a minute but eventually their grief ebbed and the two women parted. 

“Okay,” Isabel said, taking a steadying breath, before beginning her scan of Liz again. “I’m not as good at healing and medical stuff as he was,” she didn’t need to clarify who she meant, “But from what I can tell it seems like a pretty normal rate of cell growth and development. Maybe a little further along than we’d expect but we should be able to tell more later. Everything looks healthy, you and your son both seem to be fine.” 

Liz bit her lip and looked down at her, “Did you say son? I’m having a son?” she asked, voice shaking. Isabel nodded, and stood up, looking at the other tear soaked and scared faces around the room, to where the two Valenti men stood together, giving each other strength, to where Michael and Maria clung to each other both mourning for their friends and the tragedy that had beset them. She looked at Liz, alone and with a baby on the way, having lost the love of her life, had him literally ripped from her grasp, and she felt a deeper kinship to the other girl than she ever could have imagined. They had both lost the men they loved most in the world, both lost love and brothers, but bless her Liz at least still had something to cling to, she at least had something left. She sat herself on the couch beside Liz, and grasped her hands. 

“Hey. Hey.” She said, waiting for her brothers love, the woman who’d been like a sister to her own love, the mother of her nephew to meet her eyes. “We’re going to get through this, okay? We’re family, all of us.” She said, looking around, and getting nods of ascent from everyone. “Maybe we're a strange family, but we ARE a family and we’re all going to look after each other from now on. You got that? Now, where are you going to stay?” 

“I figured I’d crash at Maria’s or Michael's for a few nights till I found a place.” She turned to look at the Valenti’s. “No offense guys, but I know Kyle’s is the only spare bed and as much as this might be turning into a home for Unwed Mothers, I can’t bear the thought of staying in-” Kyle shook his head, looking at his dad. 

“No, no, we understand. I still can’t go in there myself, I don’t know if I’ll ever be able to sleep in there again, so we get it. Maria, Michael?” 

“You know Mom and I would take you in Chica, but Sean is still staying there, and I don’t think-” She was cut off as Liz shook her head, 

“No, absolutely not, I won’t put your mother in that sort of hard place and it’d just be too awkward. Michael, can I sleep on your floor?” Liz asked, turning towards him, but Isabel cut in before he could respond. 

“Absolutely not. You and my nephew are not sleeping on Michael’s filthy floor. You’ll come home with me.” Liz shook her head. 

“Isabel, I can’t just move into your house, what will we tell your parents?” She looked into the taller girls eyes, and was surprised at what she saw there. 

“The truth. We tell them the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.”


	4. Chapter 4

Pandemonium erupted. Michael of course, strenuously objected, while Liz sat there with her mouth open like a fish. Kyle and the Sheriff both had to put their two cents in, and Maria was vehemently protesting the idea of Liz going into a house where “Everything is going to remind her of him and break her heart.” That actually shook a response out of Liz. 

“Maria, I’m carrying his child. There’s not a second that goes by that I don’t think of him or miss him, there’s not a single place in this town that doesn’t remind me of him. I doubt sleeping down the hall is going to make me miss being in his arms any worse.” Her small soliloquy seemed to quiet them all, before Jim spoke again, his words directed to all of them but especially towards Michael. 

“I think telling the Evans is a smart idea” he said, and continued on quickly with a sharp look to Michael when he started to interrupt. “LIz is going to need all the help she can get, and though you all seem to forget it, I’m not the sheriff anymore and you all are just teenagers, hell, Isabel’s the only one to finish high school so far! Liz is still a minor. You’re going to need more help, adult help, and God knows if it was Kyle missing, and I found out there was a piece of him out there I could somehow help and care for, I’d move heaven and hell to do so.” He looked at Isabel, “I’m sure your folks would do the same.” and she nodded in response. 

“Isabel, your parents wouldn’t, if we tell them, they wouldn’t try to take the baby from me, would they?” Liz asked, growing trepidation on her face only easing as Isabel started shaking her head. 

“No Liz, no, absolutely not. I know they’ll want to help you, help Max’s child, but unless they thought you were unfit or something, that with all their help you’d hurt yourself or the baby, they would never do something like that.” She watched as Liz relaxed slightly. 

“I know we’re all just going off of what information we have, but is there anything else we know about your DNA or, well anything?” Maria asked, “Shouldn’t we be trying to ask Larek or someone, if they have any information so we know what to expect for Liz and the baby?” but Michael shook his head. 

“The last time we tried to force contact with Larek we almost killed Brody. Neither of us are as good a healer as Max, and without him, I don’t think we’d dare try to initiate contact. Without Larek and with Nasedo dead, there really isn’t anyone else. No one knows what happened to the Dupes and they were the only other connection we know of to-” Liz cut him off with a gasp. 

“Ava! We can contact Ava, the Dupes always seemed to know more about this entire situation than anyone else!” She started digging through the bags beside the couch until she pulled out a small, cheap phone from one of the side pockets, and sat up to have everyone looking at her. “Before Ava left she gave me this, and told me if I ever needed her to call. I don’t know of anyone else we could ask about all of this, but she’s our only lead.” Liz said, and everyone else nodded in agreement. 

“Ava, isn’t that the-” Kyle asked, and Liz nodded again. 

“Yes, she’s the Tess clone.” she told him, and watched as his face drained of color. LIz flipped open the phone. “Dead, I guess I haven’t charged it in a while.” She told them. She let out a tired sigh, and smiled at Isabel as the taller girl placed a hand on her shoulder. “Let’s go get you settled in at my house for the evening and speak to my folks. Then we can charge it overnight and try in the morning.” Isabel looked around at the rest of their group. “I think we might all need to go, Kyle, Sheriff, if you don’t mind? We’re going to need the back up and the moral support for what’s about to come.”


	5. Opening Statements

What was about to come was about 3 hours of disbelief, pyrotechnics (of the alien variety), and tears. The elder Evans had been surprised to see Isabel come through the door, since they hadn’t known she’d snuck out, and that surprise only increased as they noticed the duffle bag and luggage she and Liz Parker, who was directly behind her, were carrying. Everyone else was waiting outside while they broke the initial news, and it was after a steadying breath that Isabel spoke. 

“Mommy, Daddy, Liz is going to stay with us for a while.” They looked at her, confused by her declaration. “I need you to understand why, and to do that I need to explain a lot to you, to tell you what happened to Max, and how this all started.” She saw the fear flash across her parents faces, and the questions. 

“Isabel, if you know what happened to your brother, for God’s sake why haven’t you said-” Her father strangled out, but she cut him off. 

“I couldn’t, I wouldn’t until now, because I promised Max. Max never wanted you to know, he was too scared, and with him gone I couldn’t just go ahead without him.” her voice was soft, but strong, and she looked gratefully at Liz as the smaller girl grabbed her hand. “I need you to listen to me, and to not interrupt. And I need you to listen to some other people who can help prove to you that I’m telling the truth that we,” and she gestured towards Liz, “are not crazy and are telling the truth. Can you do that for me? Please?” 

Phillip and Diane looked at each other, uncertain where this was going or what was going on but desperate for some sort of answers. “Okay honey,” Diane said. “We’ll listen to whoever you need us to. Just, explain, please, what has been going on.”

A few moments later, slightly shell shocked at the size and composition of the crowd, Phillip and Diane sat together on the love seat as Isabel paced and began to try to explain to her parents. After several moments of pacing and false starts everyone was on edge, so it really shouldn’t have been a cause for surprise when someone finally snapped. What was surprising was who snapped. 

“Okay!” Michael called out, standing up and grabbing Isabel. “That’s enough.” He shoved her onto the couch beside Liz and Maria, before turning to her parents and clapping his hands. “Mister and Missus Evans, Max, Isabel and I are the reincarnation of alien royalty from a planet called Antar. To be precise, we are, to our knowledge, genetically engineered human/alien hybrids and the last survivors of the 1947 crash. The night you found them wandering down the highway was the night we’d come out of our stasis and incubation pods. When we saw your truck lights coming up the road, I ran off into the desert, but they stayed to be found. Max is missing now because he was kidnapped by his alien wife from our previous life and abducted back our home planet.” He said in one breath. 

The Evans jaws weren’t the only ones to drop, even those in the know were surprised by Michaels outburst. 

“Michael! You can’t just tell them like that!” Isabel said, standing up, while Liz buried her head in her hands and Maria, Kyle, and Jim Valenti looked on with shock. 

“Isabel, surely you don’t expect us to believe this nonsense?” Her mother asked, but before she could answer Valenti spoke. 

“I know it sounds crazy. Hell, I was there for parts of it as they found things out and it still seems crazy to me, but the truth is, no matter how rudely” and he shot a glare at Michael, “or bluntly someone drops the information, it is in essence, 100% true. There are a few things that they left out, several KEY things,” at this he looked pointedly at Liz, “But I assure you, disgraced former sheriff that I may be, that what Michael said is for real.” They stared at him, blinking, before Isabel cut in. 

“Mom, Dad, I’m sorry. I wanted to tell you for so long but we were scared, Max was so scared, that if you knew you wouldn’t love us anymore. After the White Room, after Alex died, he was determined that no one else would ever go through any of that, that no one else would know or be put at risk.” She said, tears in her eyes. 

“Wait, what is a White Room? What does all this have to do with Alex’s accident?” Phillip asked, eyes locked on his daughter until another voice spoke for the first time. 

“Everything.” Liz said, as everyone turned to her. “All this has everything to do with the White Room, and Alex’s death, and why Max is missing. But to really understand I think we have to go back to how all this started.” She took a deep breath. “We have to go back to the day I was shot and almost died, and Max brought me back from the brink of death.”


End file.
